COACHING TO LONDON I BY DAY OR NIGHT
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Some Details of the Enterprise of a Coaching Firm in Manchester. A Comparison of Fares by Motor Coach and Railway.
DURING the past motor-coaching season Messrs. Eniway Motor Tours (proprietors, Mr. George Ashton and Mr. F. Davies); 81a, Peter Street; Manchester, have been pursuing a progressive line of development. Realizing that long-distance services have come to stay, they have strengthened their fleet and within the past few weeks have added to their list of regular journeys facilities for night travel to London. •
By concentrating on regular long-distance jeurneyS they are telieved . from any worry concerning the disposition of vehicles from day to day, and anticipate being able to stimulate sufficient support to justify all-the-year-round running.
Owing to the difficulty which the firm has experienced from time to time in hiring sufficient coaches for their needs, additions have been made to the fleet within the past few weeks, and it now comprises three Gilford 26-seater and 32-seater saloons, three Reo 20-seater and 26-seater saloons,' an Albion 28-seater all-weather coach, and a Leyland Lioness 32-seater all-weather coach.
It will be remembered that we recently dealt with the firm's daily service between Manchester and London. That has been so successful as to have given birth to a system of running night coaches between the two cities. No special provision is made for sleepers, ordinary saloon coaches being used. From the middle of October regular night coach runnings were suspended and during the winter months night journeys will be made as and when required. On such occasions the vehicle leaves Manchester at 9 p.m., and, after making one or two steps on the journey, arrives in London at 131.6
about 6 a.m. On a recent night it was necessary to despatch three coaches on this service. There is no nightservice from London to Manchester, for which, we are told, the demand has not been
felt. •
Bookings for the day journey have been consistently heavy. The '8.30 am. coach from Manchester arrives in London at 6 p.m., and the 10.30 am. coach arrives -at 8 p.m. One memorable -day, when 12 coaches loaded up -with over 250 passengers who, had booked to London, standsout clearly in the memories of the proprietors of Messrs. Eniway Motor Tours as a record clearance from their Manchester address.
Bookings for intermediate stages are accepted and arc in accordance with the following schedule, the running times being for the coach leaving Manchester at 8.30 a.m.: At the time of writing a revision of fares is contemplated, as follows :Manchester to Newcastle-under-Lyme, single Sc., return 5s. 6d.; -Wolverhampton, (is., return 12s. 6d.; Birmingham, 7s., return 13s.; Coventry, 9z, return 16s.; Daventry, 10s. 6d., return 18s.; Toweester, lie. 6d., return 20s.; Stony Stratford, 12s., return 22s. 6d.; Dunstable, 13s. 6d., return, 25s. • St. Albans, 14s. 6d., return 27s.; London, 15s., return 20s.
. It is' a striking anomaly that the fare for the through journey should be less than . for certain of theintermediate stages. The explanation for this, we are assured, is the vigorous' competition for terminal-to-terminal traffic. Twenty shillings is quite a common rate for the return 'journey from either Blackpool Or Manchester to Londob. At the present time about 30 passengers leave Manchester for London each day.
• Fully 75 per cent, of the passengers book for the return journey, and 90 per cent. travel from terminus to terminus. Passengers having open-date tickets are required to give 48-hours' notice of their intention to return. One of the developments of the ManchesterLondon service has been an extension to Blackpool. Passengers from this resortset out at 8 a.m, and arrive in Manchester at 10 a.m., when travellers front • Manchester may be loaded, to depart at 10.30 am. This coach is better patronized than the. earlier one, because it gives passengers more time to arrive in Manchester from the. outlying districts. For the journey from Blackpool, which is about 48 miles away, the fare to London is 15s. single and 20s. return.
Messrs. Eniway Motor Tours have :a working arrangement with the Carlux Hire Service, of London, to provide transport for their passengers from the North to London. During the summer season they were booking agents for Messrs. Glasgow Lowland Motorways, who ran a daily service between Glasgow and Manchester. Two Leyland Lioness saloon coaches operated on this route, and a comprehensive schedule of fares to most of the places between Manchester and Glasgow had, been worked out. Seven-day return tickets between Manchester and Glasgow cost 35s., and long-date return tickets 37s. When necessary, the Leyland coaches were supplemented by hired vehicles.
The daily service to Glasgow war: discontinued at the end of September. For the Glasgow Motor Show from November .0th to 17th, Messrs. Entway Motor Tours ran three services within that .week to Glasgow, the fares
being 35s. return and 17s. 6d. single. There were two special journeys to Glasgow during the period of the exhibition. . Tha fare was 35s. return. On account of the keen competition at BlackPool, the fare from this resort was lower, being only 30s. return. BlackPool Passengers were conveyed by the 8 a.m. Eniway coach to Prto:, where where theyjoined the Glasgow coach.
Messr s. Euiway Metor Tours have just been appointed booking agents for Imperial Airways, Ltd. and thus will book passengers for both coach and aero plane trips. Imperial Airways passengers 1 be conveyed by the Eniway coach to. the London coach station, and from thence to Croydon by the Imperial Airways vehicle. Passengers will be booked right through to their destination. In view of this new agency, Messrs. Eniway Motor Tours may re, commence the 9 p.m. London coach, and are at present eonsidering the advisability of running a sleeper coach for this service.
"Messrs. Eniway Motor Tours are also hooking agents for coaches running to Leeds and Newcastle-on-Tyne, from which places coaches leave Manchester at 10 asn., 10.30 a.m. and noon. The fare to Leeds is 4s. 6d. single and 8s'. return, and to Newcastle-mu-Tyne 13s. single .and 21s. 6d. return. CoaChea also call at the Eniway depot for passengers to Nottingham at 10.10 a.m. daily. The fare is 6s. single and lie. return.
When requested to do.so by Passengers, Messrs. Eniway Motor Tours clients. Every Saturday chain
book hotel accommodation 11114:ir
st summer the firm sent a saloon coach to Torquay, and the journey was completed In a little over 12 hours. The coach commenced its return journey at 8 a.m. the following day, and was frequently used by passengers returning from their holiday. The average number of bookings per journey was 18, which must
be cOnsidered•-Very satisfactory. The mileage of the round trip iS abbot 600. On this journey also passengers could book•for intermediate' 'stages at.the following. fares from Man-ehester :-Worverhampton, 7a 6d. ; Kidderminster, 10s.. 6d.;. Bath, 21s. (rdturit 35s.) ; Taunton, 30s.-: Exeter, 34s.; Torquay, 35s. (return.601..). • Manchester to Bournemouth was another new week-end service instituted during the season. Every Saturday at 8 a.m. a small Boo saloon coach left the Manchester terminus, returning the
day. The return mileage was about 460, and for this journey the fare was 30s. single and 55s. return.
Aberystwyth was another .eentre to which a coach was run every week-end during the season. A coach leftManchester every Saturday at 8 a.m. and commenced the return journey at 3 pan. The average lumber of passengers on this tour, for which the single fare was 17s. 6d. and the return faze 30s., was 12. There was also a week'end service to Llandudno, for which the day return fare was 14s. and the longdate ticket 20s.
For the operation of all these longdistance services, in addition to the regular daily services to Blackpool which run all the • year through,
Messrs. Eniway Motor Tours have to hire coaches,. which are drawn from owners within a radius of about 60 miles. 'When vehicles are hired from owners carrying on huSiness in the Potteries, "Messrs. EniWay Mckor Tour's 'give a gnafantee of' tWo or 'three days'-vioik. As Marty as 60 'coaches have, been,despatehed from their Manchester station ist,inte day. . The following-is a $ummary of longdistance coaeli fares from Manchester on October 31st, compared With third "class, railwa'Y Chaiges":-.
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